Data & Eval Operations Program Manager

Institute of Foundation Models; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision

Bonus

401K Plan

Paid time off, holidays

Parental Leave

Employee Assistance Program

Life insurance and disability

Job summary

The Institute Of Foundation Models in Sunnyvale, CA, seeks a Data & Eval Operations Program Manager to design and run end-to-end data acquisition and eval pipelines for our foundation models, collaborating with researchers, engineers, and external vendors.

You will stand up programs autonomously, adapt them as needs evolve, manage multi-million-dollar budgets, and align data partnerships with legal and procurement teams. This role shapes how we train and evaluate next‑gen AI systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, engineering, business or economics.
• MBA or advanced technical degree is a plus.
• 5+ years in program management with technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Establish end-to-end data ops program with structure, goals and management.
• Establish end-to-end eval ops program with structure, goals and management.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with Legal and Procurement.
• Manage multi-million-dollar budgets and vendor relationships.
• Autonomously own programs and adapt to evolving needs.

Skills

Program management

Budget management

Vendor management

Stakeholder communication

Autonomy

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Business/Economics

MBA or advanced technical degree a plus

Tools

Contracts & SOWs

Budget tracking tools

Job description

About The Institute Of Foundation Models

We are a dedicated research lab for building, understanding, using, and risk-managing foundation models. Our mandate is to advance research, nurture the next generation of AI builders, and drive transformative contributions to a knowledge-driven economy.

As part of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to work on the core of cutting‑edge foundation model training, alongside world‑class researchers, data scientists, and engineers, tackling the most fundamental and impactful challenges in AI development.

You will participate in the development of groundbreaking AI solutions that have the potential to reshape entire industries. Strategic and innovative problem‑solving skills will be instrumental in establishing MBZUAI as a global hub for high‑performance computing in deep learning, driving impactful discoveries that inspire the next generation of AI pioneers.

The Role

As the Data & Eval Operations Program Manager for our team, you will structure and implement the processes for data acquisition and eval execution for our foundation models and will develop these into comprehensive programs. You will work closely with our techincal team, including research scientists, research engineers, and software engineers, as well as with external data vendor partners as our key interface. These programs will have a massive impact on the continuous improvement of the models we develop, meaning that this is a critical role to the ultimate success of the organization. You will be expected to stand up and manage these programs autonomously, and tailor them over time to the changing needs of the team.

Key Responsibilities

Data Operations

• Establish Data Ops Program: Establish a complete end-to-end data operations program from scratch, to include program structure, goals, and management. You will be completely responsible for standing up and owning this program.
• Understand the Landscape: Analyze and develop an understanding of the constantly evolving landscape of data offerings from new and existing vendors, and assess how this fits the evolving needs of IFM with technical leads.
• Vendor Management: Work closely with new and existing vendors on a regular basis. You will serve as the key interface between IFM and our data vendors.
• Budget and Performance Management: Perform budget management and tracking, as well as performance management. You will be responsible for the full data budget and will devise a rigorous process to ensure this spend is highly effective, with all spend tied back to actual data performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including Legal and Procurement, to ensure new data partnerships and acquisitions are completed quickly and in alignment with all organizational procedures.

Eval Operations

• Establish Eval Ops Program: Establish a complete end-to-end eval operations program from scratch, to include program structure, goals, and management. You will be completely responsible for standing up and owning this program.
• Eval Process: Devise a process for how our team regularly completes, documents, organizes, and reviews our evals.
• Eval Process Changes: Work with technical leads to understand their evolving eval needs and adjust the eval process to meet these needs.
• Streamline Eval Service: Streamline the eval process and internal eval service with our engineering team and with individual eval owners to improve how evals are completed.
• Tie Evals to Data: Develop a sense of where our models might be lagging with respect to key evals and use this to inform strategy for the data operations program.
• Understand the Landscape: Analyze and develop an understanding of the constantly evolving landscape of benchmarks that may be of interest to IFM.

Academic Qualifications

A bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, business, or economics. (MBA or advanced technical degree is a plus).

Professional Experience - Minimum

• 5+ years of relevant industry experience, with at least 3 years in program management with technical teams, including working directly with researchers and engineers.
• Budget Management: Budget management experience, managing multi-million-dollar budgets.
• Vendor Management: Vendor management experience, working across multiple vendors, and experience with contracts and SOWs.
• Complete Program Ownership: Autonomy in fully managing projects with budget, timeline, and quality components.
• Technical Fluency: You don’t need to write code or understand nuanced research but must understand relevant technical concepts.

Professional Experience - Preferred

• Foundation Model Experience: Experience working specifically with LLMs, Generative AI, or ML Infrastructure.
• Data Operations Experience: Experience working with data vendors for LLM development.
• LLM/Agentic Benchmarks Understanding: Familiarity with key LLM/agentic benchmarks, including an understanding of how LLMs, aagentic capabilties, and benchmarks are evolving over time.

Benefits Include

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Bonus
• 401K Plan
• Generous paid time off, sick leave and holidays
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Assistance Program
• Life insurance and disability

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

Salary Range

The posted salary range represents the company’s good faith estimate of the compensation for this position upon hire. The actual compensation offered may vary within this range depending on individual qualifications, including but not limited to relevant skills, experience, education, certifications, geographic location, and specific business needs.

The posted salary range represents the company’s good faith estimate of the compensation for this position upon hire. The actual compensation offered may vary within this range depending on individual qualifications, including but not limited to relevant skills, experience, education, certifications, geographic location, and specific business needs.